The Sulzberger Program

The Sulzberger Program

Build strategy. Shape culture. Lead journalism into a more sustainable future.

The Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Journalism School helps senior leaders in journalism and media to develop the strategic clarity, innovation mindset, and cultural leadership tools to tackle their organization’s most pressing challenges — and lead lasting change.

Over 20 weeks, fellows accelerate a strategic initiative that’s critical to their organization’s future—while developing a personal leadership playbook to lead a subculture of innovation around them.

This is not an academic exercise. It’s real-time, real-world learning—focused on your organization’s most urgent strategic and cultural challenges.

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Program Structure

A 20-Week Accelerator for Strategy & Leadership

Residency Week 1: The Sulzberger Training Camp
January 5–9, 2026 • Columbia Journalism School, NYC
The program begins with a five-day immersive project-based Sulzberger Training Camp at our New York City campus. Over the course of the week, fellows form small teams and build a new venture from scratch, learning both the process of building a business as well as the elements that need to come together to make a strategic project successful. This design thinking-based experiential learning also begins to turn a group of strangers into a cohort built on trust and authenticity that extends well beyond the course.


Residency Week 2: Deep Dives & Design Review 0
January 12–16, 2026 • Columbia Journalism School, NYC
In the second week, the program moves from the training camp model into deeper dives into business concepts introduced in the first week, such as Strategy, Marketing, Negotiations, and User Research. These are led by faculty of Columbia Business School as well as top industry experts. Week Two ends with Design Review Zero, where Fellows are able to fail fast and get feedback on their strategic projects from the other members of the cohort.

Weeks 3–19: Virtual Cohort Journey
Tuesdays, Noon–1:30 PM ET • Weekly Zoom Sessions
After the two week intensive, fellows return to their organizations to 1) accelerate their strategic projects and 2) develop their leadership playbooks.

The project track convenes fellows in small groups every other week to get feedback on deliverables. It is divided into three structured 6-week sprints, culminating in a design review:

  • Sprint 1: Understand The Problem: Top-Down + Bottom-Up Research
  • Sprint 2: Explore Possibilities: Create A Minimum Desirable Experience
  • Sprint 3: Make It Real: Build A Defensible Business Plan

The leadership track convenes the cohort every other week to learn an essential building block for leading through change and creating a subculture of innovation. Fellows develop their own leadership playbook by the end of the course.

One-on-One Executive Coaching
Every Three Weeks • 50-minute Zoom Sessions
Every three weeks during the virtual phase, fellows meet one-on-one with Program Director Corey Ford. These private coaching sessions offer a focused space to sharpen strategy, clarify leadership decisions, and navigate complex organizational dynamics with greater clarity and confidence.

Many alumni say this is one of the most transformative parts of the program — and often continue coaching with Corey long after it ends.

Residency Week 20: Final Pitch & NYT Visit
May 18–22, 2026 • Columbia Journalism School, NYC
The final week is back in New York City for final project presentations that equip fellows to win support and secure resources from key stakeholders at their organizations. Fellows also visit with senior leaders at The New York Times to see how the concepts they have learned throughout the course are applied in C-level roles.


Program Outcomes:
By the end of the program, fellows leave with:

  • A refined, actionable strategic solution
  • A personal leadership playbook
  • A clear plan to gain internal support and drive implementation
  • A tight-knit cohort and power alumni community that lasts well beyond the program

What Sets the Program Apart

Concentrated Timeline
Experience a year's worth of executive development in 20 weeks. Sulzberger Fellows deliver strategic results on real challenges while still leading inside their organizations.

Innovation-Focused
For executives in journalism navigating an industry facing constant disruption, traditional management training won’t suffice. Media industry leaders need to build cultures and create processes within their media companies that don’t just help them come up with “the next big thing,” but enables the organization to understand and anticipate the changing needs of their audiences, experiment with emerging technologies, and seek sustainable business models as the world rapidly changes beneath their feet. They need to proactively recognize opportunities for innovation and persuade their stakeholders for the resources to pursue them. The Sulzberger Program specifically focuses on building leaders who will thrive under these conditions.

A CEO Lens on Culture & Strategy
Sulzberger Fellows learn to see their organization from the perspective of the CEO. Culture and strategy are the two most fundamental levers a CEO has to move their organization in the right direction. This immersive experience leaves them with the ability to shape the overall strategy of an organization and to intentionally design the subculture around them to both implement and improve upon that strategy.

Immersive Learning with Immediate Application
Leaders learn by doing. The Sulzberger Program, redesigned in 2020, maximizes personal growth, retention, and real-world applicability through active, experiential learning. Our unique Sulzberger Training Camp is an immersive experience that has fundamentally transformed how executives approach building and leading their organizations. Our project focus means that participants create measurable outcomes throughout the term by working on regular assignments and checking in with faculty, ensuring that what they learn in the classroom translates to their newsroom.

A Tight Cohort & A Powerful Network
The Sulzberger Program leverages the assets of Columbia University, pulling instructors from the Columbia Journalism and Business Schools, drawing industry innovators working in one of the world’s great media capitals, and tapping into the powerful Columbia Journalism School and Sulzberger alumni networks. This community gives Sulzberger Fellows a broad perspective and powerful network as they take their place leading innovation in media and journalism.

Proven, Repeatable Impact
Since Corey Ford redesigned the Sulzberger Program in 2019, 130 fellows across 6 cohorts have experienced the personal and professional impact of the program. Read more about their transformative experiences here.

Who Should Apply

The Sulzberger Program is designed for:

  • CEOs, Publishers, and C-Suite executives at established news organizations
  • Founders and executives at media startups
  • Rising leaders on a path to become the next C-Suite executives in journalism

The cohort is intentionally formed to mix media companies from different stages, legal structures, revenue models, focuses, and locations:

  • Company Stages: From start-ups to institutions
  • Legal Structures: From for-profits, to non-profits, to public media
  • Revenue Models: From subscription, to advertising, to membership
  • Focuses: From global, to national, to state, to local, to niche
  • Location: From NYC, to the USA, to Europe, to Japan, to anywhere else

Applicants should bring a strategic project and the ambition to lead culture change around it. The strategic project has two core requirements:

  • It Must Be Applied & Strategic: Projects should address one of your organization’s most pressing strategic challenges and apply a concrete solution by the end of the course. No white papers. No content creation.
  • It Must Fit Into The Fellow's Day-to-Day Work: Fellows must choose projects that fit into their day to day work and responsibilities. The project should naturally be at the top of their priority list during the course. No side projects.

Tuition & Scholarships

Program tuition is $20,000 and includes all coursework, group meals during residencies, and 5 coaching sessions. Additional coaching sessions during or after the course are available for an additional fee. Travel and lodging are the responsibility of the fellow and/or sponsoring organization.

The vast majority of fellows are fully sponsored by their organizations. Because the program is directly applicable to advancing mission-critical strategy, most tuition is covered by strategic or project budgets — not just training budgets.

For nonprofit organizations, many fund participation through sponsorship from a major donor who supports executive development. A few fellows each year choose to self-fund for their own professional growth.

Columbia Journalism School will offer up to four no-fee fellowships to leaders who would not otherwise be able to attend. Applicants can request consideration directly in the application form. Due to the highly competitive nature of the scholarships, applicants are highly encouraged to seek sponsorship in parallel to applying for a scholarship.

Application Process

Applications are now open. The application is a simple form that takes less than an hour to complete—no references or approvals required. It includes three parts:

  1. Basic information
  2. Application questions, including
    1. Describe your current role and responsibilities in your organization.
    2. Link to a project and tell us why you are proud of it.
    3. What motivates you to apply to the Sulzberger Program?
    4. Describe the strategic problem you want to solve with your Sulzberger project.
    5. Describe a back-up project if the first project didn't work out.
    6. What is your current assessment of your team's culture of innovation? Where would you like to move it through your leadership?
  3. Financial considerations
    1. How do you plan on paying for the program?
    2. Have you talked with your organization about sponsorship?
    3. Do you need to apply for a scholarship?

For international applicants, please see this privacy notice: https://www.cuit.columbia.edu/privacy-notice.

Applications will be reviewed promptly. Promising applicants will be selected for a 30-minute first round interview over Zoom with Director Corey Ford. Follow-up interviews may be scheduled as needed. Non-scholarship decisions will be made on a rolling basis until the cohort is full. No scholarship decisions will be made until the application deadline.

Key Application Dates:

Next Steps

Are you ready to become a fellow in the next Sulzberger cohort?

Here's what you should do next:

1) Sign up for the Sulzberger mailing list.

2) Sign up for and attend an information session (or watch the info session video if the date has already passed):

3) Talk to your company about a potential sponsorship.

4) Apply ASAP — no later than October 12, 2025.

Apply Now